Thomas More

Thomas More (7 February 1478-6 July 1535) was the Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to May 1532, succeeding Thomas Wolsey and preceding Thomas Audley. More is best known for his book Utopia, a 1516 book which discusses a perfect society located on an island - this book is one of the first examples of communism.

Biography
Thomas More was born into a prominent family in 1478, and he pursued a legal career. More was a devout Catholic throughout his life, considering leaving law to become a priest; however, he ultimately decided to remain in law, and he became a member of Parliament in 1504 to represent Great Yarmouth. In 1516, More became a famous person when he wrote Utopia, a narrative about an island nation which allows for its people to live in decency and harmony. The society would see harsh punishments exacted against adulterers, premarital lovers, and atheists, but it would allow for people to share goods, live together in harmony, respect each other's religions, and be able to be in public without being afraid of violence. More's work painted the picture of an ideal society, and it criticized contemporary European society.

More would proceed to serve as an undersheriff of London, a privy councillor, under-treasurer of the Exchequer, secretary and adviser to King Henry VIII of England, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and he succeeded Thomas Wolsey as Lord High Chancellor when Wolsey was charged with treason in 1529. More saw Protestantism as a form of heresy during the Protestant Reformation, and he had six men burned at the stake for being Protestant. However, he would be forced to resign as chancellor in 1532 when King Henry VIII decided to leave Catholicism for the Church of England, and More snubbed Queen Anne Boleyn by refusing to go to her wedding with King Henry; he was opposed to the divorce of Catherine of Aragon and King Henry. In 1534, he was sentenced to death for treason, and he was beheaded with an axe on 6 July 1535. He would become a Catholic saint and martyr after his death, and he inspired communists such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Vladimir Lenin had a monument erected in his honor near the Kremlin in 1918 after the Russian Revolution due to his communist views.